Harpers Ferry

Family Goal for May #1: Take a Mother's Day camping trip each year.

Family Goal for May #2: Explore somewhere new each year on said camping trip.

This year's camping trip didn't happen exactly on Mother's Day weekend (we got it in on the last weekend in May), but we DID get to add a new state to our list of states visited when we made it to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia! 

Harpers Ferry was recommended to us by a lady Steve works with, and man it did not disappoint! We loved it!! We stayed at the KOA campground, which was a great family camping experience. We keep saying we're turning into pansy campers, but with a toddler it's hard to resist the playground, pool, showers, bathrooms, mini golf, movies, FREE pancake breakfast, blow up obstacle courses, huge jumping pillow... sheesh! The only reason we could call it camping was because we slept in a tent and cooked dutch oven for dinner :). It was awesome.

Harpers Ferry is a historic little town nestled along the Appalachian trail, where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers join together and Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland meet. Part of the town is preserved as a national park and the other part is open to shops, restaurants and homes. The town has a huge railroad influence and we loved watching trains pass through every half hour or so.

Check out that hill we hiked up to get to the little church! Hills are a big deal when you live in a flat, sealevel state. 

Jefferson Rock--Thomas Jefferson spoke of this point being "worth a voyage across the Atlantic" to see. 

Found some Harpers in the Harpers Ferry cemetery

Found this gem in front of some random house.

We decided to celebrate our birthdays early and outfitted ourselves with bicycles, a bike trailer and a bike rack so we could bring them on our trip. One day we drove down to another town and took our bikes out and rode the C&O canal 5.5 miles up to Harpers Ferry and then back.

Watching a train going by at the trailhead

Jaden wasn't feeling too well...I think he got a little overheated in the bike trailer. But it wasn't anything a little ice cream couldn't fix!

Someone couldn't get enough ice cream

I think Dad mode is so hot :)

From the far left (my right in the picture) is the Potomac river (not shown but right next to me), then biking trail (with me), C&O canal (that green stuff), railroad tracks, mountain. Gorgeous.

This is a picture of the town that we took while driving 30 mph across a bridge. Not a great picture, but gives you an idea of what it looks like.

 On Sunday we packed up and found a sacrament meeting in Harpers Ferry. The church was only five minutes away from the campground! We were so excited. I guess we've forgotten what it's like to not have a half hour long trip to church :). 

After church we headed north to Maryland to check out the Antietam battlefield. Living back east makes me realize how much I really need to brush up on my American history. I knew Antietam was significant to the Civil War but I couldn't remember why. We learned at the visitors center that Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in all of US history, with 22,000 lives lost. It was sobering to be there, to say the least. Worthwhile, but sobering. The Civil War just makes me sad. And learning about military campaigns and battle strategies and tactics is fascinating, but visualizing it is just plain sad. Hey, let's have thousands of people just walk toward each other and see the faces of the people they're killing? I just don't understand it and I'm glad I didn't live back then. How ironic that such beautiful land is the graveyard of so many fallen soldiers. 

I'm grateful we went. It helps turn my "heart to my fathers" if you will and gives me more pride and gratitude for this country I live in.   

 So after a reverent Sunday activity, we had to break the Sabbath by taking advantage of THE place in Sharpsburg to get ice cream. We just needed a pick-me-up. Don't judge us :)

I love our annual camping trips because it's the one time a year we get to just be OUR little family exploring the area around us. It was a great kick off to our insane summer. I told Steve when we got home that I would see him in September :). Summer shouldn't be so crazy for us yet, but it is anyway. We're convinced that May is the perfect time to camp and we're glad we got it in.